How old should a child be when they are potty trained?

Question

I Work at a day care and a young mother wants us to begin training her son, but we feel he is way to young, he can barley walk, he turned a year old about a month ago, and she is still keeping him in diapers! She is up set that we havent been training him, the problem is that no one told me when I started last week that he was being trained. He isnt talking much yet, does this to seem to early and extream of a thing to do so soon? Any suggestions about how to talk to the mother with out getting her up set would be helpful, Thank You for your answers in advance!!

Answer 1

He's too young and you need to tell her that. A child can't be potty trained until they can actually comprehend what a toilet is--and at 12 months that's near impossible. He's still a baby and it's just going to be nothing but trouble if you try training him now.

Just tell his mom that it would be a waste of time training him now because he's not old enough to understand it.

If she wants to train him at home, more power to her--but she's not going to get very far. He's still a baby and when he's ready to be potty trained HE will let you know :-)

Answer 2

As an employee at the child care, you have no right to tell this mother that she's wrong. What she's doing isn't hurting the child unless he's being punished for having accidents. This is an early age for potty training and this mother is likely to only delay getting her desired results but she is the mother and that is her choice. Unless the child care has a policy on a minimum age staff will assist in potty training, you'll have to go along with what she says. It sounds to me that this is a mother looking for a "prodigy" child. What she has is a healthy child. He'll let his mom know he's not ready and he'll let her know when he is. If your child care has newsletters you could include a section on potty training but that's about all you can do.

Answer 3

Sounds like the mother has unrealistic expectations. The child can barely walk, how can he get himself to the bathroom? Most children need to be able to walk fairly well and communicate half way decently before they are ready to be potty trained. Someone need to confront the issue head on and let them know your center doesn't believe it is appropriate to expect a 12-16 month old child to be training to use the bathroom

You are not wrong for your feelings, but you need to be up front with the mother instead of blatantly ignoring her request. Just tell her you don't think it is something you can participate in, as it isn't appropriate for that age.

Good Luck

Answer 4

every child is different, and potty trains at different ages. however, i have two children 4 and 3 and they have gone to a montessori school for almost 3 years now, and i know that as soon as they are out of the infant room--a little over 12 months that they start having daily potty breaks just like when we were in elementary school, and my daughter and son both were potty trained almost completely before they turned two. i think that it depends on the policy of the facility that you are at. Also, not to sound rude but i think you should talk to the mother and verify that she is also potty training at home and not trying to get you the child care providers to do the work for her.

Answer 5

Depends so much on the child. If they are obviously aware of what is going down in the diaper, and they show an interest, then it is time. no point in trying to force a child who hasn't got a clue what it is all about.
My 22 month old is definitely ready, she even takes her own diaper off when it is dirty! Getting on to it soon, I was waiting for the warm weather before getting out the training pants.

Answer 6

A child should be potty trained by 3

Answer 7

There are some resources on potty training on the web, I cant remember the names of them, I taught in a daycare for 5 years, we never started until about age 2, the child needs to be able to speak and express their need and be aware that are going, most of our kids were totally trained by 3-3.5 girls are faster then boys, but they have specific signs they need to show before you start.

here are some links, we used to have potty training hand outs for our parents when they started in the toddler room...

http://www.pottytrainingtips.com/

http://www.pottytrainingtips.org/potty-training-topics.html

good luck

Answer 8

I waited until my daughter was about 1 1/2. I had a co worker who trained her 3 kids by the time they were 1. It all depends on the kids and if they are ready to learn, they all learn at different ages and different paces. Good luck in your situation.

Answer 9

he is way too young to my daughter was almost 2 went she started going to the potty and my son just turned 2 and he is trained but I think one is too young especially if he can't talk that well yet

Answer 10

It somewhat depends on the child and not so much on the mom. The accepted range is 1-3 years. If the child is not capable of using the toilet at his current age, just go with what the director of the day care center says.